SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

Yufei Tao

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Chinese University of Hong Kong

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

SQL offers several constructs beyond relational algebra to allow users to
write more powerful queries. In the previous lecture, we have studied a
collection of constructs for statistical analysis. This lecture will introduce
another collection for enhancing the functionality of WHERE and
HAVING.

We will first discuss WHERE and then HAVING.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

Where

Recall that the where clause contains conditions of the form A op v

where A is an attribute/value, op is an arithmetic operator (e.g., <), and
v is another attribute/value.

Next, we will learn new conditions where

v is an SQL statement
op is an operator that compares a value to the result of v .

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

Membership Test

In
(A1 , ..., An ) in ([an SQL statement])

where each Ai is an attribute/value. (A1 , ..., An ) must obey the schema

of the table T returned by the SQL statement.

The expression returns:

true, if tuple (A1 , ..., An ) appears in T .
false, otherwise.

The bracket of “(A1 , ..., An )” can be omitted if n = 1.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

 PROF
pid name dept rank sal
p1 Adam CS asst 6000
p2 Bob EE asso 8000
p3 Calvin CS full 10000
p4 Dorothy EE asst 5000
p5 Emily EE asso 8500
p6 Frank CS full 9000

select pid from PROF

where dept in (select dept from PROF where sal >= 10000)

Result:
pid
p1
p3
p6

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

 PROF
pid name dept rank sal
p1 Adam CS asst 6000
p2 Bob EE asso 8000
p3 Calvin CS full 10000
p4 Dorothy EE asst 5000
p5 Emily EE asso 8500
p6 Frank CS full 9000

select pid from PROF

where (dept, rank) in (select dept, rank from PROF where sal >= 10000)

Result:
pid
p3
p6

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

 PROF
pid name dept rank sal
p1 Adam CS asst 6000
p2 Bob EE asso 8000
p3 Calvin CS full 10000
p4 Dorothy EE asst 5000
p5 Emily EE asso 8500
p6 Frank CS full 9000

select pid from PROF

where (dept, sal) in (select dept, rank from PROF where sal >= 10000)

Error! (dept, sal) does not match the schema of the table returned by
the nested SQL statement.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

Membership Test

Not in
(A1 , ..., An ) not in ([an SQL statement])

where each Ai is an attribute/value. (A1 , ..., An ) must obey the schema

of the table T returned by the SQL statement.

The expression returns:

true, if tuple (A1 , ..., An ) does not appear in T .
false, otherwise.

The bracket of “(A1 , ..., An )” can be omitted if n = 1.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

 PROF
pid name dept rank sal
p1 Adam CS asst 6000
p2 Bob EE asso 8000
p3 Calvin CS full 10000
p4 Dorothy EE asst 5000
p5 Emily EE asso 8500
p6 Frank CS full 9000

select pid from PROF

where (dept, rank) not in
(select dept, rank from PROF where sal >= 10000)

Result:
pid
p1
p2
p4
p5

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

Set Comparison 1

Some
A > some ([an SQL statement])

where A is an attribute/value, and must obey the schema of the table T

returned by the SQL statement.

The expression returns:

true, if A is greater than at least one tuple in T .
false, otherwise.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

 PROF
pid name dept rank sal
p1 Adam CS asst 6000
p2 Bob EE asso 8000
p3 Calvin CS full 10000
p4 Dorothy EE asst 5000
p5 Emily EE asso 8500
p6 Frank CS full 9000

select pid from PROF

where sal > some (select sal from PROF where dept = ‘CS’)

Result:
pid
p2
p3
p5
p6

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

Set Comparison 2

All
A > all ([an SQL statement])

where A is an attribute/value, and must obey the schema of the table T

returned by the SQL statement.

The expression returns:

true, if A is greater than all tuples in T .
false, otherwise.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

 PROF
pid name dept rank sal
p1 Adam CS asst 6000
p2 Bob EE asso 8000
p3 Calvin CS full 10000
p4 Dorothy EE asst 5000
p5 Emily EE asso 8500
p6 Frank CS full 9000

select pid from PROF

where sal > all (select sal from PROF where dept = ‘EE’)

Result:
pid
p3
p6

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

The operator > in “> some (all)” can be replaced with <, <=, =, <>
and >=.

The semantics in each case agrees with the literal meaning in English. For
example, “< some” means “smaller than some element (in a table)”.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

Next, we will learn two more useful conditions of the form:

op ([an SQL statement])

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

Emptiness Test

Exists
exists ([an SQL statement])

The expression returns:

true, if the SQL statement returns a table with at least one tuple.
false, otherwise.

not exists ([an SQL statement])

The expression returns:

true, if the SQL statement returns an empty table.
false, otherwise.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

 PROF
pid name dept rank sal
p1 Adam CS asst 6000
p2 Bob EE asso 8000
p3 Calvin CS full 10000
p4 Dorothy EE asst 5000
p5 Emily EE asso 8500
p6 Frank CS full 9000

select pid from PROF as P

where not exists Note
(select sal from PROF Observe how P is used in the
where sal > P.sal) nested query.

Result:
pid
p3

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

 T1 T2

pid cid cid

p1 c1 c1
p1 c2 c2
p1 c3 c3
p2 c2
p2 c3
p3 c1
p4 c1
p4 c2
p4 c3

select distinct pid from T1 as P

where not exists (
(select cid from T2)
minus
(select cid from T1 where pid = P.pid))

Result:
pid
p1
p4

Note that this is another way to do division in SQL.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having
Next we extend the above discussion to HAVING.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

Review

select A1 , ..., At , agg 1 (B1 ), ..., agg m (Bm )

from T1 , ..., Tn
where P
group by C1 , ..., Cg
having H

where
C1 , ..., Cg are called group-by attributes.
H is a group predicate.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

Having

The group predicate can contain conditions of the form:

agg (A) op (SQL statement)

where
agg is an aggregate function
op can be
in, not in
< some/all
<= some/all
= some/all
<> some/all
> some/all
>= some/all
The nested SQL statement must return a table of a single numeric
column.

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

 PROF
pid name dept rank sal
p1 Adam CS asst 6000
p2 Bob EE asso 8000
p3 Calvin CS full 10000
p4 Dorothy EE asst 5000
p5 Emily EE asso 8500
p6 Frank CS full 9000

select dept from PROF

group by dept
having avg(sal) >= some (select avg(sal) from PROF)

Result:
dept
cs

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having

 PROF
pid name dept rank sal
p1 Adam CS asst 6000
p2 Bob EE asso 8000
p3 Calvin CS full 10000
p4 Dorothy EE asst 5000
p5 Emily EE asso 8500
p6 Frank CS full 9000

select dept from PROF

group by dept
having avg(sal) >= some (select sal from PROF)

Result:
dept
cs
ee

SQL 3: Nesting in Where and Having